


THE LIBRARY OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF 
NORTH CAROLINA 


THE COLLECTION OF 
NORTH CAROLINIANA 





a a) i qc - 4) st Wa | $ y - | ex ) oy ‘ } 
lransferred from the Den irtment | 


f A a) SO Bees = - a i 
of Archives and 4 


+ oa 
ki I Ss 


cy = 
{,\re 


Ti PI 
dull f ff) 








es 










AN ; : 
GTA OGD 
; : RECITED- BY a) ; ; | . 
ae TES BARRON OPH, a 


ON THE OCCASION 





OF 





RICHMOND: 
EXAMINER JOB PRINT. 
1866, 





(23 
; ° 
* 





ss EM Seribew 
TO THE 


LADIES OF WARREN COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA, 


“Aes AND 







_ ‘THROUGH THEM, | 





5 Mn a! 
FeE On G, 


few 


y of 
AS 
' EVIDENCE 


the South, — 





PREFATORY LETTER. 


NORFOLK, October 10th, 1866. 
My Dear Mapam: 

As a slight evidence of my cordial sympathy with the pious task 
you and your associates have assumed, and my lively recollection of . 
your great personal kindness to me when an inmate of the Hospital 
which you cheered by your presence, I beg leave to place at your dis- 
posal the accompanying MS. 

In doing this I trust you will not hold ne guilty of egotism if I re- 
_ mark to you, and through you to my readers, that this Poem was 
written in the midst of engrossing labors on a daily paper ; and upon 
a notice so short (from the 26th July to the 8th of August) as to ren- 
der it less worthy the occasion than it might have been had I possessed 
more ample leisure for its composition. 

IT now transmit it to you in the form in which it was recited, and 
beg you when you mark its defects, to bear in mind that my position 
was one of peculiar delicacy; the time allowed me short; and the 
Ode itself composed to be spoken: but this I may say, that if my 
performance could haye giyen expression to my feelings, it would not 
have required so elaborate an apoloe ys for its imperfections, as that 
with which it is now sent to you, b; PS 

Your friend and obe lient servant, cf 
~ 9 JAMES BARRON HOPE. 
To Mrs. Lewis N. Wess, President Hollywood Memorial Association, 
Richmond. 






Ie 


oer 





[EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE NORFOLK DAY BOOK. | 


THE LEE MEMORIAL—MONUMENT TO THE MEMORY OF 
ANNIE CARTER LEE. , 


WaRREN County, August 9, 1866. 


THE MEMORIAL CEREMONIES. 


The eighth of August was the day named by the committee of 
arrangements for the completion of the monument which now lifts 
itself "above the remains of ANNIE CARTER LEE 
Before the ceremonials of the day began, I cantered over to view 
the spot, held in such tender reverence by usall. My way lay through 
a pine forest, whose growth gradually gave place toa breadth of lor dly 
oaks. Here. and there sever ral brooks, like silver threads, crossed the 
road, which, gently undulating, at last opens upon the crest of a bold 
ridge. On emerging from the woods, I confess that I was surprised at 
the sight I beheld. In the centre of this broad plateau, which has 
been cleared for the space of several acres and carefully rolled until 
its grassy slopes are almost lawn-like, a clump of stately trees rise, 
spreading their great arms like priests in benediction over the quiet 
burial ground, which was yesterday Ponsecr ste by blessings from a 
multitude of reverential hearts. 






66 GOD'S A JRE. ” er 


The grave yard is a parallelogram seveuty-one by fifty feet in extent, 
and is enclosed by an iron railing, firmly set in granite sills, supported 
_by granite columns, at once strong, tasteful and simple. Here I found 
a group of country gentlemen, masons and field hands, engaged in the 
final preparations. Various teams were busy dragging great branches 
of pines over the road and sward; and I was particularly struck by 
the profound silence which reigned over the scene. Even the faces of 
the negroes wore an expression of gravity and decorum. Here I dis- 
mounted, and was received by Josepn S. JONES, Esquire, who must 


8 


pardon me if I venture to give him a prominence which may pain his 
modesty. My apology for this, as indeed, for my general treatment 
of the subject, is found in the fact that the ceremonials of yesterday 
have become a part of our domestic history ; and hence I feel author- 
ized to speak of private individuals with a freedom which, under 
other circumstances would not be justified. Two years ago Mr. JONES, 
in whose ancestral grave yard the monument now rises, conceived the 
idea of its erection. The first step was to obtain a competent mason 
to do the work, and at that date, in the very agony of the Confederacy’s 
struggle, this was no easy task. There was one man whom he might 
obtain, and he determined to make the effort. The stone mason whose 
serv ices he desired to secure, was an invalid soldier of the Forty-sixth 
North Carolina Infantry, and there is a story which he tells himself 
with touching simplicity that illustrates one of General LrxE’s noble 
traits of character, and it may, therefore, fairly claim a place here. 
It has its historic worth, as will be seen. , 

ZERRAL CROWDER was a broken-down soldier. Unfit for active ser- 
vice, he was detailed as a “light duty”? man, and failing daily in 
health he wrote to General Lex himself, asking instructions as to the 
proper mode to pursue in order to have his application for a discharge 
acted on by the War Department. In reply he received a letter of 
minute instructions, with a line or two of kind and cheering words at 
the bottom of the page in the General’s autograph. This paper he 
preserves with pious care, and he cherishes it as a precious evidence 
of the tender sympathy which our great Captain felt for the humblest 
of his followers. 

In the meantime, however, Mr. Jones applied to General Brace for 
the detail.of the sick soldier, which was at once granted by that 
officer, in consideration of the reason assigned in the application of 
Mr. Jones. Discharged from the army, and with health partly re- 


established, the grateful mason began his labors, the results of which 
I see before me. 


THE LETTERS. 


By the time the mennment was completed, the fame of the enter- 
prise had gone abroad, and the limits originally set a the managers 
to the consecration ceremonies, exp an 
the wishes of the sympathetic p nblic. ‘ 

The narrow circle of those originally vit vited was gradually enlarged, 
and I have now before me a mass of letters which would be of price- 
less value to an autograph hunter. 

Among these I have the invitation from the ladies to General LEE, 
from which I venture to extract a beautiful passage congratulating 
him on the escape of his sons and himself from the perils of battle 
and disease. It runs as follows: 

“Through the kindness and mercy of our Heavenly Father, your 
gallant sons fought the good fight even to the end, and you were spared 






9 


amid the shock of battle and its horrid carnage for four long years. 
Spared to us, a grateful people, who feel linked to you in the closest 
ties of friendship and the closest bonds of sympathy. 

“We cannot honor you with too deep a reverence, nor love you 
with an affection too pure and fervent. You have a home i in every 
heart, a welcome in every household, and the whisper of your name 
echoes a thousand blessings upon you and yours. ” 

In this the sweet and noble-hearted women of Warren county have 
justly set forth the sentiments of our entire people ; and even as their 
eloquent words have given utterance to the feelings of the eleven 
Boadiceas of the South, so did their act of tender homage to the dead 
confirm their warm and affectionate sympathy expressed for the living. 

I fold up General Lzr’s letter, noble in manly simplicity and Chris- 
tian truth, with a reverence which all will understand, and so pass on. 


: THE MONUMENT 


Is Greco-Egyptian in its style; a Doric base surmounted by an 
obelisk. It is, to quote from the letter of the ladies to General Lee, 
‘A plain and simple shaft, sculptured trom (their) native granite by 
an invalid Confederate soldier, whom General Bragg in his kindness 
detailed for this purpose. The whole structure rises to the height of 
about sixteen feet, and in its severe simplicity harmonizes well with 
the adverse destiny of those by whose affection it has been erected. 
It bears the following inscriptions : 


Front. “ Annie C. Ler, DAUGHTER OF GENERAL R. E. Lez ann Mary 
CarTER LEE.” 


Side. “* Born aT ARLINGTON, JUNE 18TH, 1839, AnD DiED AT THE 
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WARREN County, N. C., OcTOBER 20TH, 
1862.” 


Reverse. ‘“‘ PERFECT AND TRUE ARE ALL HIS WAYS, 
WHOM HEAVEN ADORES AND EARTH OBEYS. ”’ 


These lines, breathing the humble trust in which she died, are taken 
from the hymn which she requested those about her to sing as she 
entered into the Valley of the Shadow. The blessed peace and calm, 

the trusting hope and earnest. fait ) which they speak, must carry 
unspeakable comfort to the heart hose whom she has left fer’ brief 
season. ee: 

The intention originally was to erect the monument noiselessly ; but 
the people of Warren, anxious to manifest their love and reverence 
for the great and good man first in their hearts, gradually came for- 

ward to claim the right of participating in the pious work, until it 
Die necessary to appoint executive committees to conduct it. 
Thus through the spontaneous affection of the people was the man- 
agement of “the task taken from individual hands, soon to be carried 
even bey ond the bounds contemplated by the committees themselves, 





10 


The movement thus organized was controlled, or rather the public 
impulse was obeyed by the following committees : 

On the part of the ladies, by Mrs. Joseph E. Jones, Mrs. Thomas 
Carroll, Mrs. Brownlow, Miss M. Alston, Miss M. Sommerville, Mrs. 
S. M. Heck and Mrs. Lucinda Jones. , 

The gentlemen of Warren were represented by Colonel W. J. 
Green, Dr. Geo. Field, John Watson, Dr. S. G. Ward, Colonel J. M. 
Heck, J. 8S. Jones, Colonel Wm. Cheek, D. W. J. Hawkins, Hon. W. 
N. Edwards, Wm. Eaton, Jr.. Wm. T. Alston, Turner Battle, T. A. 
Thornton, Peter R. Davis, Henry B. Hunter, Richard Arrington, J. 
Buxton Williams, Dr. Thos. J. Pitchford, James T. Turtty and N. 
Malone. 


THE GATHERING. 


The Committees were undoubtedly as much surprised as the present 
writer at the throng which began to assemble at an early hour. Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina were well represented, and all classes assem- 
bled, according to the published order of the Committee, at Jonxs’s 
Springs. The roadway was blocked for hundreds of yards with 
vehicles, and the beautiful lawn was densely crowded by a great con- 
course of people, who moved about, or sat under the trees in a silence 
as unusual as it was painful in so dense a throng. _ 

In the drawing-room of the hotel, Generals Wittiam H. F. and 
Custis Ler, together with General Cox, and other distinguished visi- 
tors, awaited the organization of 


THE PROCESSION. 


At the appointed hour Colonel GreEn gave the order to form, and 
the great body of people began noiselessly to arrange themselves in 
order. The representatives of the family, the clergy and invited 
guests, took their seats in carriages at the head of the column, and 
the long line of carriages moved off, followed by those on foot. I was 
of the first to arrive at the spot, and here were great numbers from 
all the adjoining country, already assembled. Some idea of the length 
of the procession may be formed from the fact that from the time the 
head of the column arrived uy on the ground, till the last carriage 
droye up, occupied forty minutes. The assembly was estimated at 
between twelve and sixteen hundred, and the density of the crowd 
may be imagined when I state, that on that breezy hill three ladies 
ee during the ceremonies, overpowered by the heat and excite-. 
ment. 







THE CEREMONIES. 


A flight of steps rested against the monument, and a low platform 
was erected at its base. The Rey. Dr. Hopaus, Rector of the Parish; 
Rey. Dr. PrircHarp, and the Rey. Mr. Sonomon, were present ; and 
the first named gentleman celebrated the service. It was brief and 


ae 


impressive. The mason whose chisel had cut the stone, assisted by 
his son, at a signal from Doctor Hopanus, placed the funeral urn upon 
the summit of the shaft; descended; removed their ladder; fell back 
with soldierly precision into the throng; and then the good Pastor 
read from the book of Common Prayer some appropriate selections 
full of wholesome truth and sublime consolation. 

At the end of his consecration of the spot, Captain Hops, in accord- 
ance with the wish of the ladies of Warren, recited an Elegiac Ode, 
of which it only becomes the present writer to say, that he discharged 
his duty with unspeakable reverence. At the conclusion of the reci- 
tation, the Rev. Mr. Sonomon dismissed the assembly in a few simple 
words, and the great throng melted away from the crest of the hill, 
bound to the four points of the compass, 


‘“ Tow on the sand and loud on the stone 
The last wheel (echoed) away.” 


- IT was among the last to leave the spot. As I stood there, I thought, 
with melancholy pleasure, that I had that day seen another bond of 
affection woven between the two noble States, which, in war and 
peace, have fronted the same dangers, and now share the same des- 
tiny with a fortitude which will be the admiration of succeeding gen- 
erations. When I turned away from the monument, which expresses 
not only love for the dead, but reverence of the living, I took a last, 
look at the beautiful landscape, with its dark forests and undulating 
hills, full of tranquil beauty ; and I thought, as I rode back to my 
quarters, that the austerity of the grave is rarely softened by a more 
benignant aspect on the face of nature than that which smiles around 
the resting place of ANNIE CARTER LEE, H, 








© by G:. 


biz 
Upon my journey hitherward I crossed 
A. shining stream, born of the silver rills 
Which, in the distant purple Ridge, are lost 


Amid Virginia’s hills. 


Onward it flows, nor once its force abates, 
That gleaming river, kissing cliff and lea, — - 
A bond, dear friends, between our noble States; 


It sweeps on to the sea. 





a, APs A * > : 
Enriching all your spreading lowland fields, 
Enriched, in turn, by bearing on its breast, 
The bounties which your agriculture yields 


From glebes with wealth oppressed, 


14 


And on that tide which from Virginia starts— 
Born where the mountain streamlets fret and foam, 
This wealth, in part, sweeps on to Norfolk’s marts, 


The city of my home. 


But there are other bonds, far stronger ties 
Than mutual traffic ever can create ; 
Here sculptured proof rises before our eyes 


Of love from State to State. 


Here Carolina comes, her brave cheeks warm 
And wet with tears, to take in charge this dust, 


And brings her daughters to receive in form 
ae 


Virginia’s sacred trust. 


ae 






ae 


Poor in all else, but rich in graves, my State 
Folds Carolina’s children in her breast, 
And fronting with a royal brow her fate 


She watches where they rest. 


Her daughters to those hushed.encampments go, 
Where soldiers sleep, but where no banners wave. 
Both States like sisters pierced by common woe 


Now cuard each other’s graves. 
oO ca) 


II. 
And in this graveyard we have food for thought, 


Here, too, are problems which must give us pause— 
Problems which God’s wise Providence hath wrought ° 


Through His benignant laws. 


We stand here in this Summer silence deep 
Like swimmers halting on the sudden brink 
Of some dark river, whose mysterious sweep, 
a Sy eke 
MS 


Though voiceless, bids us think ee 


wt? 
We think on life’s harsh facts and broken dreams, 
Its lights and shadows made of hopes and fears, 
And feel that Death is kinder than he seems, 


And not the King of Tears, 


16 


Gazing around upon this tranquil scene, 
Where shady wood-lands stretch in vernal pride, 
Where wave the fields in tender hues of green, 


With life on every side, 


We read a lesson in God’s open Book ; 
All the fair page with one great text is rife, 
And though we run we yet read in one look 


That death but leads to life. 


“ 


The trees which lift their crests against the sky, 
The harvests rippling in the heated breath 

Of every breeze which Morn or Noon sweeps by, 
Themselves were born of death, 


ee w th 
nH saith 
“3 


a 


The acorn held yon oak—the cone yon pine— 
‘The flinty corn contained its tassels’ mane, 
These in the earth through God’s all-wise design: 


Have for a season lain, 


In the cold earth these seeds went to decay: 
Then, lo! there came a God-directed change— 
A change which, carried on by night and day, 


In workings hid and strange— 


Bringeth great glory to the face of earth, 
In pomp of trees, and blooms, and waving corn, 
Which in decay all find a second birth 


Of dissolution born. 


2) Lig 
And as we view each green, pathetic sod 


Mounded in order like successive waves 
Crested with marble; or, with grass from God 


he 


To beautify the graves ; 


oe sg it 
RI 2 
7. 
ma: al 


< 


Some here whose hearts have been of tears the wells, 
Whose dreams have chan ged from rose to sober brown, 
Might envy those who foundered neath those swells 


Which show where they went down ; 


18 


And, hence I said, thinking of youth’s wild dreams, 
Its lights and shadows made of hopes and fears, 
That, Death, oh, friends! is kinder than he seems 


And not the King of Tears. 


IV. 
Think not I take a false view of this life ; 


I trust I read it as is meet and fit : 
I try to understand the pain and strife 


4, 
Wherewith ‘tis all o’erwrit. 


And through our journey each must bear his load 
From the flushed Morn ’till Even’s sober hours, 
And thorns will pierce us all along the road 


Where we had looked for flowers. 


be fas 





But he who these sharp lessons rightly heeds, 
Accepts the thorns in place of painted bloom, 
And learns through all the anguish, as he bleeds, 


‘‘o hold the silent tomb 


19 


But as the bed where, chastened in our pride, 
Made pure by sorrow and affliction’s rod, 
Our frames, like seeds, shall lay their husks aside, 


That they may grow t’ward God. 


He chastens us as nations and as men, 
He smites us sore until our pride doth yield, 
And hence our heroes, each with hearts for ten, 
Were vanquished in the field ; ® 
And stand to-day beneath our Southern sun 
O’erthrown in battle and dispoiled of hope, 
Their drums all silent:-and their cause undone, 


And they all left to grope 


In darkness till God’s own appointed time 
r aa ve 





e , 
In His own manner pa y by 
Our Penance this. His le sublime 


Means we must learn to die. 

* A friend, himself a poet of no mean order, has pointed out to me 
the fact that these lines might be distorted to bear a political mean- 
ing, against which use of them I protest, and refer to the stanzas 
which follow to vindicate the text from such a perversion. 





Not as our soldiers died beneath their flags, 
Not as in tumult and in blood they fell, 
When from their columns, clad in homely rags, 


Rose the Confederate yell. 


Not as they died, though never mortal men 
Since Tubal Cain first forged his cruel blade 
Fought as they fought, nor ever shall agen 


Such Leader be obeved! 


No, not as died our knightly, soldier dead, 
Though they, I trust, have found above surcease 
For all life’s troubles, but on Christian bed 


i : 
Should we depart in peac 





Falling asleep like those whose gentle deeds 
Are governed through time’s passions and its strife, 
So justly that we might erect new creeds 


From each well ordered life, 





21 


Whose saintly lessons are so framed that we 


May learn that pain is but a text sublime, 
Teaching us how to learn at Sorrow’s knee 


To value things of time. 


Thus thinking o’er life’s promise-breaking dreams, 
Its lights and shadows made of hopes and fears, 
I say that Death is kinder than he seems, 


And not the King of Tears. ® 


Vis 


Mark you each separate spear of tufted grass ! 


Behold each flower which opens astral eyes | 


See how they point us like the Host at mass 





Why shrink, then, from’ the 


Why shed hot tears above its friendly sod ¢ 


tender grave aghast ¢ 


For, is it not, in sooth, oh friends ! the last 


Great Charity from God ? 


bh 
bo 


Let perfect Faith bind up each bleeding heart, 
Smile through your tears upon its grassy slopes, 
Since Christ hath slambered may we not depart 


Sustained by Christian hope ? 


Wale 
The realms of Nature and of Art are rich 
Tn images of blessed peace and calm 
In which this yard may well be figured—which 


{q 
May sooth us like a Psalm, 


Chanted at evening by the silver notes 


Of singing children, watched by mother’s eyes, 





‘Tis like an Abbey with the monks in cells, 
The nuns invisible, all pale and fair, 
Where no Laudamus on the silence swells— 


All still as if at prayer, 


And as the Abbey in the days of old 
Offered repose to men when sore oppressed, 
So doth the charitable grave unfold 


For us a bed of rest. 


2 


Thus musing o’er life’s problems in my dreams, 
This radiant hope dispels my ,timid fears, 
And whispers death is kinder than he seems, 2 


And not the King of Tears. 


There is no death: surcease we have from strife. 
There is no death: absence there is I know. 


There is no death, but everlasting life. 
Banish that word of We 





In speaking of the pure in life, for He 
Whose Son for us was nailed upon the cross 
Hath told us surely: “ For the good set free 


This life were but a loss. ’ 


24 
. . 5 * 
Such language comes within the Hyangel’s scope, 
Which tells us of our tender Master’s care 
Who died to give us an undying hope, 


And stimulant to prayer. 


Four Summers now have waked the songs of birds, 
Made violets blow and stained the roses red, 
Since first we heard the unenlightened words 


That Annie Lee was dead. 


Teed not the words which those pain-stricken said, 
The lips of those who spoke them were enticed 
In grief’s first passion to de ‘lare her dead 
Who was the “ Bride e Chri 


Si << 






Ye who then whispered of it in your halls, 
Might envy her of whom ye heard the tale, 
That she within this monastery’s walls 


That day put on her yeil. 


Yes, you; my friends, who stand with me to pay 
Your homage to the dust beneath this sod, 
Might envy her who journeyed on that day 


To meet a smiling God. 


With all her wealth of womanhood—her truth— 
Her innocence and purity of life— 
In the full promise of her golden youth, 


With all perfection rife, 


She left the sorrows of this troubled sphere, 
Escaped the tumults which distract the land : 
A radiant Angel whispered in her ear, 


And God stretched forth his hand. 





Her gentle spirit now is throned above, 
And hence, I say, you need not tell in tears 
Beads counted on the Rosarie of Love 


For her beyond the spheres. 


26 


Against such candid spirits, whose worst ends 
Had Virtue’s sanction, death cannot prevail, 
And so I said to you but now, oh friends! 


That here she took the veil. 


Vit: 
Ifere, in this Cloister, hushed by a great spell 


The monks and nuns all find surcease from care 
And rest themselves, each in a narrow cell, 


All still ag if at prayer! 


And though the Abbey in the days of old 
Was a retreat to sooth the troubled breast, 
Still it had days of purple and of gold 


To break its tranquil rest. 


oh age 
en il 
hd * 
ae 
24, 
a) 


¥ 


©. : 
On some high festival the minster’s stalls 
Were broken in their customary calms, 
And long processions from its sacred walls 


Poured out with chanted Psalms. 


Mitre and Crosier ‘mid the vocal bands 
O’er which the gazer saw their banners top, 
While borne aloft by consecrated hands 


Blazed the atoning cross. 


On the Last Day, as the Apostle tells, 
God gathers all from graves of land and sea, 
Then monks and nuns will quicken on their cells 


To immortality. 


And there amid those radiant, white-stoled nuns, 
In a great sea of glory and of grace 

From God’s own smile, brighter than many suns 
Shall shine this maiden’s face. 

VILL. 

And as the long procession ce 
Saileth up will swell on high 

Their Hymn of Intercession 3@ 
For the souls not born to dic: 


Christe Mediator Noster ! 


28 


Day of Grace, and Day of Wonder ' | 
Amid elemental thunder 
Christ hath burst the grave asunder, 
And ascended to the sky ! 
There he standeth—there he bleedeth, 
There he with the Father pleadeth, 
Praying that we may not die. 
Knowing what each sinner needeth, 
Tenderly Ie intercedeth 
That death of death may pass us by. 


And ag we, in terror quaking, 
Start at that august awaking, 
There shall rise from all who’ve slumbered, 
With this Sainted Maiden nunibered, 
Loud and long th’ imploring cry: 
Christe Mediator Noster ! 
“ Save ‘ts, Master, or we die!” 
"ae 
And our Master then will hear us, 


Tenderly He will draw near us, 


29 


Graciously He will upbear us, 


Those who did not sin to die. 


Christe Mediator Noster, 

We beseeth Thee guard and foster 

Those who loved her, and-who lost her 
In Thy wise benificence: 

Silent under Thy infliction, 

Give them, Christ, Thy benediction ! 

Hear this humble supplication— 

Earnest, yearning imploration 

From the wrung heart of a nation 


Thou hast stricken to the dust! 


In Thy hands we put this trust : 
Father of our second birth, ° oe 
As thou guardest her in Heaven, 2 


Guard the Parents upon Earth. 5S; 


SOLIN 























iii 
00035495295 | 


This book must not 
be taken from the 
Library building. 


———— 
L 
{ | 
| 
| 





pet EE 


ae 





